[Note 11:  The events of this fourth voyage are related in the interesting Relacion hecha par Diego Mendez de algunos aconticimientos del ultimo viaje del Almirante Don Christobal Colon.  King Ferdinand afterwards granted Mendez a canoe in his armorial bearings, in memory of the services he had rendered.]

[Note 12:  Columbus reached Santo Domingo on August 18th, and there rested until September 12th, when he embarked for Spain landing at San Lucar on November 7.]

According to his letters and the reports of his companions, all the regions explored by Columbus are well wooded at all seasons of the year, shaded by leafy green trees.  Moreover, what is more important, they are healthy.  Not a man of his crew was ever ill or exposed to the rigours of cold nor the heats of summer throughout the whole extent of fifty leagues between the great harbour of Cerabaro and the Hiebra and Veragua rivers.

All the inhabitants of Cerabaro and the neighbourhood of Hiebra and Veragua only seek gold at certain fixed periods.  They are just as competent as our miners who work the silver and iron mines.  From long experience, from the aspect of the torrent whose waters they divert, from the colour of the earth and various other signs, they know where the richest gold deposits are; they believe in a tradition of their ancestors which teaches that there is a divinity in gold, and they take care only to look for this metal after purifying themselves.  They abstain from carnal and other pleasures, also eating and drinking in great moderation, during the time they seek gold.  They think that men live and die just like animals, and have, therefore, no religion.  Nevertheless they venerate the sun, and salute the sunrise with respect.

Let us now speak of the mountains and the general aspect of the continent.

Lofty mountains[13] which end in a ridge extending from east to west are seen in the distance towards the south from all along the coast.  We believe this range separates the two seas of which we have already spoken at length, and that it forms a barrier dividing their waters just as Italy separates the Tyrrhenian from the Adriatic Sea.  From wherever they sail, between Cape San Augustins, belonging to the Portuguese and facing the Atlas, as far as Uraba and the port of Cerabaro and the other western lands recently discovered, the navigators behold during their entire voyage, whether near at hand or in the distance mountain ranges; sometimes their slopes are gentle, sometimes lofty, rough, and rocky, or perhaps clothed with woods and shrubbery.  This is likewise the case in the Taurus, and on the slopes of our Apennines, as well as on other similar ranges.  As is the case elsewhere, beautiful valleys separate the mountain peaks.  The peaks of the range marking the frontier of Veragua are believed to rise above the clouds, for they are very rarely visible because of the almost continuous density of mists and clouds.